1989 Movie
Dir. Tunç Başaran · Turkey · Turkish
A child inspires camaraderie despite imprisonment in this moving classic drama
Originally a novel inspired by real life incarceration, Don’t Let Them Shoot the Kite is actually much more optimistic than a prison stay would seem to be. Much of that lighter mood comes from an outstanding performance– Ozan Bilen, who portrays Barış, the precocious boy that lives in the prison with his mom due to a quirk of Turkish law– but the lighter mood isn’t due to ignoring the prisoners’ reality. Instead, the lightness comes because of understanding that reality fully. Despite the suspicion of the prison guards, and the way the camera makes the prison walls loom, Barış still manages to fuel some hope through straightforward, simple truths unfiltered by the tedium and mores of everyday life, and the fear people grow to learn about. Truth truly comes out of the mouths of babes in this film, and it’s what makes Don’t Let Them Shoot the Kite a classic of Turkish cinema.
Sent to prison along with his mother after her drug conviction, a young boy develops a warm, tender relationship with a political prisoner.
As per Turkish law, when a mother is sentenced to prison, her children must accompany her. Barış is one such toddler, and within the women’s penitentiary, he befriends political prisoner İnci.
Ozan Bilen’s performance.
So, so happy that classics like this are being restored, and so, so worried that we’re not doing enough to save other classics like this.
Isabella Endrinal is a curator at A Good Movie to Watch. She's now free from the corporate night shift. Previous articles have been published in outlets such as NANG Magazine. She's currently catching up on some classic films… if she isn't coping with the fact that the Haikyu anime will end soon.
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